


Lamp with a Transparent Case

by Niokuma



Series: Hauntober [8]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Hauntober, Lantern, Undead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:35:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26889724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niokuma/pseuds/Niokuma
Summary: Rio is trapped in the darkness.
Series: Hauntober [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948978





	Lamp with a Transparent Case

**Author's Note:**

> Rated T for Undead  
> Original Work for Hauntober Prompt =Lantern=  
> Characters: Rio; Robert; Mary; Tiok; Azmaria

=Lantern=

It was dark. Rio couldn’t even see his hand in front of his face it was so dark. He did see a small light in the distance. Carefully, he walked over to the light. Eventually, he realized what it was. It was a lamp with a transparent case.

Carefully investigating it, he realized that the transparent case was made of some clear crystal, not glass, and the framework was made of a strange, teal-gray metal with strange markings carved into them. Something he remembered seeing but he couldn’t recall where. There was a handle on the top made of petrified wood with similar carvings. He gripped the handle and held it high into the air.

Even with the light, he could barely see in front of himself.

“At least it’s something,” Rio said, shaking his head. “Maybe I’ll be able to find my way out of this darkness.”

\---

As he wandered through the darkness, Rio came upon a pool of water that was darker than the darkness around him. He touched the surface gently but his hand didn’t sink into the water. As he pulled his hand away, he watched as ripples vanished into the distance. He touched it twice more, watching the ripples travel forever to the left and right as well.

“I wonder.”

Rio stood and gently placed a foot on the surface of the water and gently put pressure on it. His foot didn’t sink into the water and so he continued walking forward, the light showing him the featureless void before him.

\---

As he walked through the darkness, Rio came upon a leafless weeping willow tree. It was solid white against the bleak darkness surrounding him but he could still see very little due to the lack of light. He rose the lamp into the air and saw two semi-opaque figures underneath the tree. A little boy and a little girl.

The little boy was reading an old book while the girl had a stick in her hand. They both looked like they were from the sixteen hundreds.

“Robert, you should stop reading,” she said, hitting the book with her stick. “Come play!”

“I can read if I want to,” he said. “Leave me alone, Mary.”

The two figures then faded into nothing as the tree faded to black leaving Rio standing there with just the light. He started moving forward again, the tree completely gone.

\---

After a while of walking in silence, he never noticed that the water was no more and when his footsteps started echoing, he stopped walking. He rose the light and searched around, realizing he was now in a corridor of some sort. He could barely tell as the mortar was just barely lighter than the bricks.

“Wait up, Mary,” Robert called out from behind Rio. He turned and watched as Mary, holding a stick, ran through him and then Robert stopped right in front of Rio. He had his book. “Mary, we’re not allowed in here!”

“Don’t be a wimp, just come on,” Mary called out. Rio turned and saw her for a moment before she turned around and ran into the darkness.

“Mary! Don’t leave me alone,” Robert cried out and ran after her.

Rio shuddered but continued walking. His feet no longer echoed and it was silent once more with nothing but the light from the lamp with a transparent case to keep him company.

\---

After what felt like another eternity of walking in darkness and silence. Rio came upon a solid white door.

Mary and Robert were standing in front of it. Touched the knob but Robert pulled her hand away.

“Don’t barge through doors without permission,” he stated. “Knock first.” She nodded and knocked on the door thrice. After the third knock, the door opened on its own, and Mary shrugged at Robert before walking through the door. Robert looked around, his eyes seeming to linger on Rio for but a moment, before going through the door as well. It then shut behind them.

Rio walked up to the door and knocked three times on it. The door crept open and Rio entered.

He was in the house once again but this time, this time it had old furniture. There was a grandfather clock ticking off the seconds. A couple of lit wax sticks sat on surfaces all around the foyer. His lamp with a transparent case no longer shed light but instead, it was giving off a dark, purple light.

Rio heard footsteps above him and he looked up. Mary was climbing a ladder into an attic. He followed after her, up the stairs and into the attic where he saw Mary, an older Mary, at least twenty years old, standing just a little ways from the entrance. The only thing in the attic was a pile of old rags in the corner that looked like Robert’s clothes.

She walked over to them and kicked them.

“You were always so engrossed in your book,” she scoffed out. “Glad you’re no longer around. Having to take care of you was so troublesome. Never wanting to play, just reading that book of yours.” She looked at her watch.

_They aren’t pilgrims?_

“Can we play,” Robert’s voice called out. Both Rio and Mary looked at the source.

There stood a  bony  child wearing naught but cobwebs and dust for clothes and in i t s hand was a tattered, worn book. In place of a normal human’s head, though, it had the skull of a raccoon.

“Who are you,” Mary asked, alarmed by the creature’s appearance.

“I’m ready to play with you, Mary,” it said. Robert’s voice quivered. “You don’t recognize me? I want to play with you!” It ran at Mary who stumbled over the rags and then scurried to her feet, passing by the skeletal creature . It tried to stop running but slipped, dropping the book. It kicked the book as it fell over, sending the book to Mary’s feet. She picked it up and climbed down the ladder. Rio quickly followed her and watched as she closed the attic door. She then left for a moment, returning with nails and a hammer. She then grabbed a chair and proceeded to hammer the trap door shut. After Mary finished, she faded into nothing and after Rio blinked, he was no longer standing in the house but in the darkness with nothing but the light trapped within the lamp  with a transparent case  to keep him company  but then it started to fade into nothingness leaving Rio completely alone in the dark.

“Rio!”

Rio suddenly sat up and found himself in the basement of the house he had been in. “The book,” he gasped out. He scrambled to his feet and searched his pockets. “My phone. Where is it?” He scrambled around on his hands and knees, searching the floor for his phone but couldn’t find it.

“Rio!”

He looked up at the door to the basement. He recognized the voice and Rio scrambled up the stairs. He tried the door but it didn’t open. “The door’s stuck!”

“Back up,” Tiok’s voice called out and Rio complied.

“I’ll catch you if you fall,” Rio cried out.

The door shoved a couple of times but on the third, it broke down and  Tiok came tumbling down the stairs. Rio softened his fall by being a cushion.

“Oof, thanks for the landing,” Tiok stated and got off of Rio and helped him to his feet. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, get a hammer,” Rio said and dashed up the stairs, ran through the kitchen, and to the foyer, passing Azmaria as he went. He then dashed up the stairs to the second floor and stood underneath the trapdoor that lead to the attic. “We need to remove these nails!”

“I’ve got a dagger,” Tiok said, catching up to Rio. “I’m not sure if it’ll work.”

“Is it just the two of you,” Rio asked.

“He came running home and asked about the house,” Azmaria stated. “I was the only one home.  Why does it matter?”

“I guess it doesn’t matter right now,” Rio stated and looked back up at the attic trapdoor. “How are we going to get this dagger to pull out the nails? It’s too high up.”

“We can tear up some of the floorboards,” Tiok stated and ran over to a spot, jamming the dagger in between the boards, prying them up with his raw strength.

“With that strength, we could have torn out a counter and use that as a stool,” Azmaria stated, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow. “You sure you don’t want to be a farmhand? With that strength, you’ll stop so many droughts.”

“I don’t want to think about that right now,” Rio stated, shuddering, watching as Tiok climbed onto the stack of boards and started prying out the nails. Eventually, they were all out and he pulled open the trapdoor, the latter unfolding as it dropped. Before it even struck the floor, Rio was climbing the ladder and looked around. “Tiok, do you have my phone?”

“Yeah, here,” Tiok said, handing up his phone.

Immediately, Rio turned on the flashlight and looked around. He saw the pile of clothes and carefully walked over to them, carefully looking them over.

“Have you come to play with me,” a familiar voice asked and Rio stood, turning to look at the one who spoke.

“Are you Robert,” Rio asked.

“You know my name?”

Rio walked over to the boy and smiled. “My name is Rio and I’m here to help you.” Rio offered his hand to the boy who accepted his hand. “Do you know where your book is?”

“My big sis took it from me,” he said. Even though he wasn’t Rio swore Robert was crying.

“What is that,” Tiok asked, eyes lingering on the raccoon skull-headed child.

“It’s a whisperer,” Azmaria said. “They’re spirits of dead children of those who were forgotten, neglected, or abandoned by the world. Be careful, Rio. They can be taken over by the necrotic forces that animated them and attack you.”

“He’s just a lost soul looking for his book,” Rio said, and lead Robert down the stairs. The four of them regrouped in the Foyer.

“What are we going to do with him,” Tiok asked, watching as Robert was fascinated by Rio’s phone and was playing a colorful app that it took him less than a minute to figure out.

“We can’t keep him,” Azmaria stated. “He’s the ectoplasmic remains, and probably the physical remains, of a long-dead boy.”

“We don’t have to destroy him. We can help him move on.”

“How,” Tiok and Azmaria asked, almost simultaneously.

“We need to find his book,” Rio answered, looking at them. “His sister, Mary, took it from him. If we can give him his book back, it might be enough to help him move on.”

“I don’t know,” Azmaria stated. “Whisperers are-”

“Unpredictable,” a voice said and everyone turned to see a woman with long, brown hair and dark gray eyes. She was wearing a white gown that fell to her ankles. On her feet were matching heels.


End file.
